Short attention span knitting

Notre Dame dishcloth

Yarn: Lily The Original Sugar'n Cream (100% cotton; worsted weight)
Color: Dark Pine
Needles: US 7s
Stitches: 37

I've been struggling of late to follow through on longer knits, but the quick ones have been getting done just fine. I don't recall knitting dishcloths as fast as I have been, but I flew through this Notre Dame dishcloth. It took about three hours to knit up this one repeat from a scarf pattern. I don't expect it'll get any reaction from my brother when he gets it on Christmas day, but I know his grad school stint as one of the Fighting Irish made him a fan.

The pattern for the logo is ingenious. Most dishcloth patterns render their subject in purls, but here stockinette stitch makes up the overlaid N and D. It stands out quite nicely. I'm not sure what I'd think of it in a scarf, but it works really well in this project.

Basic Cup Cozy

Yarn: Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool; worsted weight) and Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool; worsted weight)
Colors: 1233 and 9404
Needles: US 6s
Stitches: 42
Pattern: 2x2 rib

This cup cozy in Christmas colors was another quick knit for spreading the spirit of the season. The 2x2 ribbing has a four-stitch wide rib where I joined in the round because four doesn't evenly divide into 42. I was following the pattern instructions and realized that I needed to adapt it after knitting the first round, but I didn't care and kept on going. It doesn't look bad or anything, but the mistake does irritate my perfectionist tendencies.

The nice thing about not doing a bunch of Christmas knitting is that I have time to make small items like these if I get the itch.

The fever

Here's the cozy hard at work. It may take a little stretching to easily slide over a coffee cup, but it will fit around a medium. My small gift was warmly received. May it be put to good use from here on out.

Today was a big mail day. I was really excited to open the box to find my media pass for the upcoming film festival and, more importantly, my Knit Picks order. The four skeins of Elegance in Cornflower were practically calling out to me because one of the first things I did after walking in the door of my apartment was to begin knitting with the yarn.

It was like the yarn had cast a spell on me. I couldn't wait to start using it, even though I only had about an hour before I needed to head out again. I started the scarf and was ridiculously happy to be working on this project. I'm not sure what came over me. Perhaps it is because I've not knit as much lately because of all the other time eaters. Perhaps it is because I really feel motivated to knit this scarf in particular. Whatever the reason, I would have sat there and knit that thing the rest of the night if I hadn't had somewhere else to be. I'm ready to stop blogging this moment and resume knitting this scarf.

I have the fever, and the only prescription is more knitting, not more cowbell.

Back to the basic

Basic Cup Cozy

Yarn: Adrienne Vittadini Bianca (100% extrafine merino wool; worsted weight) and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted (100% superwash wool; worsted weight)
Color: Black (0600) and Pewter
Needles: US 6 circulars
Stitches: 42
Pattern: 3x3 rib

I really needed to knit today, but I didn't think I'd have an FO when all was said and done. This was one of those projects that snuck up on me. I wanted to do a little something for a friend, and this seemed like the quick and simple object best suited for the situation.

I wanted to try something a little different, so I pulled out Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book and looked at its stitch dictionary. I decided to try the diagonal cross rib, which has a left twist that produces a cable-like pattern. It requires knitting through the back loop, which I soon found was extremely trying for me. I ripped out once because I picked up an additional stitch the first time. I ripped out again when my stitch count was wrong three rows into it. I did not cast on for the diagonal cross rib pattern again.

I'm not sure how I kept getting the wrong number of stitches, but it happened twice. This was going a lot slower than I'd hoped, which was why I knew that diagonal cross rib would be better attempted some other time. I was getting frustrated, and I didn't have anything to show for the time I'd put into it. For all I know, I'm not even properly knitting through the back loop. (It certainly was no walk in the park.)

So I switched it up to 3x3 rib. A couple hours later I had finished and was generally pleased with the result. I probably bound off too tightly, but that shouldn't prevent the cozy from performing its function.

Really, it's too bad that I failed. I was excited about trying to do something different and adapting it for circular knitting. I don't know if I was correct in the assumptions I was making, but I think I was headed in the right direction.